a little education to pass the time….

Nice info about bees during Winter. Here, in VA, we don’t have to wrap our bees.

Honey bees in Winter

So, now that Fall is truly upon us, a beekeeper must look towards helping the hives survive the winter. Five of my hives are doing fine, but the 6th one may not make it until spring. They have, what appears to me, to be a virgin queen (I’m not totally sure, but usually mated queens are larger and she is rather slim – along with the fact that she has been there for a couple months and hasn’t laid any eggs).

One of the duties that worker bees (females) carry out in the fall is get rid of the drones (the males). The drone’s only job is to mate with the queen during her mating flight in the spring. The remaining drones from spring and summer just hang out in the hive and eat. Because the workers (who cluster together during the winter) need the food they made (honey and stored pollen), the drones are kicked out and/or killed to conserve food. I added brood from another hive last week to try to get their numbers up so that they can cluster successfully. I have honey I can add to the hive and will feed them fondant during the winter, so if the numbers are good, they should be able to generate enough heat to make it. The problem will be building their numbers up in the spring. With a virgin queen, they won’t get a good start and might lose too many bees to continue to cluster until it gets consistently warm. The hive may make it until February, and then die.

There’s always one hive that gives a beekeeper up at night during the winter…..

I posted previously that I caught a swarm a couple weekends ago. Went in to check on them today after letting them get acclimated to their new home. Unfortunately, the hive was overtaken with Lesser Wax Moths. The queen was present but the bees were lethargic and didn’t look their healthiest. This swarm was small once I caught it – way less than a normal swarm. Wax moths get in and burrow under the comb on the frame and lay eggs. Then, as the larvae grow, they move throughout the hive, leaving heavy webbing, feces and other eggs along their wake. A strong hive, can take care of them, for the most part. The bees will open any capped brood on top to get the larvae out from underneath and they will kill any adults. My main worry, upon capture, was that it was one of my hives that had swarmed and I had lost a queen.

I finally was able to get inside my hives (I placed a 14 day treatment in the hives and couldn’t open them until today) to remove the remainder of the strips and check for their queen. Three of the 4 treated hives were still strong, and their queens were present. That was a relief, but that’s not all… Once I saw that the swarm queen was still in the hive and could be transported to another hive, I looked at the last of my treated hives. This hive was one that had no evidence of a queen when I treated them 2 weeks ago. I thought, great, I can transfer the queen over and see if they will accept her. Of course, as soon as she disappeared into the hive, I looked for her. It was then that I noticed the newer queen that the hive had created on their own. Chances are, they will kill the newest queen and keep their own. However, I have learned that nothing is as clear cut as it is in the books. I will keep you posted….

Great article in Bee Culture Magazine about a Scottish Beekeeper during the Nazi Concentration camps.

CATCH THE BUZZ – A Scottish Beekeeper in a Nazi Concentration Camp, and, Honey Bees Delivering Pesticides to Protect Plants.

Last weekend, I caught a very small swarm. Not typical for this time of year. Swarm season is May-June, typically. Placed the swarm in a box and left them alone until yesterday. Sure enough, one of my marked queens was in the box. At this point of the year, they don’t have the numbers or the resources to last through the winter. I will have to combine them with another hive and hope they make it through the winter.